Austin 70.3 Race Report Part 1: The Build Up

I don’t usually do full, lengthy race reports but after the “Guess my bike split” competition I feel I owe it to those who participated to give them some insight into my race and the training that led up to that performance.

After a lot of down time in June and July while I was getting my business ready for our fall programs I got back to some decent training in August. This was derailed when I crashed at a weekly Tueday night group ride and sustained a concussion. I took a bit more time off, raced a couple times and dropped out of a few races. It was very hit or miss as I was listening trying to listen to my body and not push too hard. It was about 6 weeks before I felt “back to normal” and wasn’t getting any headaches or feeling occasional nausea after a hard workout or race.  At this point I knew I was still in decent shape just from staying active and I had the itch to race but wasn’t sure I wanted to commit to a 70.3 distance. Finally, about 4 weeks out from Austin I decided to do it since A) It’s so close, and B) I’d paid the Ironman pro membership for the year but only raced 3 times so I would actually lose money on the year if I didn’t do a 4^th race. So I signed up.

With only four weeks to prepare I did a few key sessions a week but didn’t try to overload my body too much. I’d had decent results at a few events this fall with minimal training and knew I was better off going to the line a little underprepared but fresh. In those four weeks I did FOUR longer(ish) rides of 50-65 miles. Each of those included 60-90 min of race pace intervals at 245-260 watts. They varied between 15 min, 10 min and 20 min efforts with a 45min tempo the weekend before. Each of those rides I got a bit stronger and though my ride time stayed at 2:50-3:05 for every one, my TSS increased by about 10 for each ride.

For running I did TWO longer(ish) runs during the build up. Once of them was a 13.3 mile run at 7:30 average and a couple breaks because I was running with a group. The other was an 8 mile tempo run at 5:47 pace that came out to a little over 11 miles after warm up and cool down. I also did one hill repeat workout and one speed workout on the treadmill (8x3 min efforts on 1min rest). I knew my heart and lungs were strong but wasn’t sure if I’d fizzle at mile 10 of the run due to lack of volume.

For swimming I swam 2-3 times a week with masters. Never more than 9000 yards in a week but my times were still good and I was confident I would be fine in the water.

The weekend before Austin I did a 50 mile ride with a 48 min tempo at 282 NP on rough, hilly roads. I felt strong and smooth and was hoping I could hold 260-265 for 56 miles in Austin.  After that ride I got off the bike and ran 5 miles at 6:05 pace. I didn’t feel great on that run but I didn’t feel terrible and I knew there was nothing more I could do.

As race day approached I was confident and excited to give my best effort for the fitness I had on that day. A lot of people have asked me what I thought my bike split was going to be. I wasn’t totally sure and obviously I didn’t care what it was if I hit my power numbers. I’d worked with Ryan, over at Best Bike Split to do some modeling and based on my goal power and we were getting a split of around 2:19 for holding 263 watts NP. I was thinking I could go somewhere around there and even if I rode a little slower I would hopefully come in around 2:20-2:21 still.